Mungo Park Jr. was a pioneer in South American Golf and golf clubmaking. Park was also a successful golfer and golf course architect. He won the Argentine Open three times, including the inaugural championship in 1905. He was part of the famous Park family from Musselburgh that won a total seven Open Championships in the 19th century.
Early years and family
Park was born in Musselburgh, Scotland on 9 January 1877. His father, Willie Park Sr., was one of Scotland's top golfers, who won the first Open Championship in 1860 and Park Jr. learned golf from childhood. Park Sr. won three more Open Championships. His uncle also Mungo Park Sr, younger brother of Willie Park Sr., also won the Open in 1874. His brother Willie Park Jr was also an Open champion At age 19, in 1897, he went to New York, sailing on the RMS Teutonic, to open a branch of his brother's business but this only lasted one, or at most two, years as Mungo was advertising for a professional's position for 1898. During his time in New York, he laid out the nine hole Dutchess Golf Club course at Poughkeepsie, New York in 1897 then began 1898 as the professional to the Dyker Meadow Club in Brooklyn. He worked at Mount Anthony, Vermont until the end of 1900, when he returned to Scotland to marry and take up the post of General Manager at Huntecombe, his brother Willie’s enterprise in Oxfordshire
Argentina
By 1903, Park went to Argentina where golf was not new, there were already six courses and an amateur championship had been contested since 1895, and served as a professional. He won the country's first Argentine Open in 1905, a feat he repeated in 1907 and 1912, and laid out a course in Buenos Aires at San Andrés, in 1907. His wife, Grace, a formidable player over many years, was the country's first Ladies' Open champion.
Later years
Park was reported as "newly returned from South America" when he competed in the Scottish Professional Championship in May 1914. In February 1915, he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps and served as a private with the 73rd Field Ambulance in France until his discharge in May 1919. After the war, he returned to Argentina and again to the United States in 1923 to complete the work done by Willie, now in failing health, at St JohnsburyCountry Club in Vermont. Although he spent that winter, and the next, in Argentina, Mungo remained in the United States until 1936 with spells as professional at rather eccentric resorts, including the Victorian castle run on Quaker principles at Lake Mohonk, New York, and the Castle Hot Springs resort in Arizona.
Golf course architect
He built many courses in Argentina, but many have disappeared. The most prestigious of the courses he had built is the San Andres Golf Club in 1907. The course remains active.
Family
Park married Grace Morrison in 1901. They had three children Mungo III, Catherine and Jack. Grace was a useful golfer. In May 1902 she played for Scotland against Ireland and England in international matches at Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club and reached the semi-final of the British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship the following week. She won the Argentine Ladies Open in 1904, 1909 and 1910. Catherine, known as Katie, was also a Scottish international golfer.
